Thread: starting a fescue lawn from scratch

here are the pictures if any of you need a good laugh for today. still considering getting a few bales of straw to put out. afraid i might get busy with work and miss one watering. going for 2 a day.. to keep it moist.. supposed to get rain next to days.. hope its nothing to heavy..

just going up about half way up with the fescue because i actually got a good stand of bermuda at top of hill, gonna put some kinda mulch bed in the middle area. this was the roughest area. i am wanting to plant something there, like a tree or something. i had transplanted some of the sod i dug up to top of hill where the bermuda was bare.

it'd be nice to have something back there more than what i had.. then one day when i have money will be sodding with a bermuda or zoyzia. i hate this backyard. the wife wanted this house, had to have it.. and i was shaking my head about the yard.. and the basement not finished. but... HELL of a deal on the house.

its been 14 days. wish i had a closer up picture.. it doesn't look so great. i seeded at 8lbs per 1,000 sq. ft. but its really thin so far. looks OK from far away. we are getting some heavy rains the next week, so i'm not gonna do anything this week, but when should i touch up areas? should i expect more to come up over next week or so? or is that pretty much it?

I have noticed a lot local places dont sell good seed. not saying all dont. I went to agway to buy a mix and it came up but thats it if you know what I mean....and just didnt have turf like ablility. I used defiance xre.....not the best rated top 5 grass but the stuff is good and has came up nice and thick and strong and I never got into planting grass until the summer. also make sure you loosen up the soil down a little and get rid of the junk in it.

i don't care for it myself, but it is what it is.. lol. i knew it was gonna look wierd.. but.. to many problems with the middle area right now to try to grow grass there. way to many rocks and boulders in the middle.. was on a pretty tight budget with it too.I couldn't even mow what was in the middle before, had to line trim.. i'm just glad i will be able to spend less time mowing, and i'm not looking at a bunch of dirt and rocks. just gonna have to deal with ugly burnt up fescue in the summer. but i can deal with that.

i would put money into a walkbehind or tank sprayer before i did this backyard. the wife likes it, so i guess thats always a plus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by suzook

It looks pretty good to me. The one thing that does look odd is that bed...kinda strange where it is.

when should i mow this new fescue?? its been right at 20 days, its 4 inches high in some spots. i went over it with more seed because its patchy.. will see what happens. worried that its gonna get to high. mabee i should have waited till it was mowed once.. feel like i don't have much time left anyway, first frost will be here before we know it.

Inzane, I am in the exact same boat as you. I am at day 20 today. I seeded at 8 lbs. it looks great from a distance but up close it's thin. A few area look better than others. The good areas are 4 inches. I am wondering if I should cut it this week and spread more seed at half the rate. Being that it's a bunch grass I am scared ti over do it.

i'm 23 days out. today it looks a little better. some of the additional seed i put out is sprouting a bit. the week of heavy rain we had last week didn't help to much, the area on right slopes down, and the water washed some of the new grass out a bit, its kinda matted down.. i backed off my watering some. i guess i'm gonna get the sprinkler out every 3rd day and just continue to mist the thinner areas i overseeded once or twice daily.. i'm not expecting much out of this lawn by the looks of it. first time seeding one from scratch, and probally gonna be the last

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kawizx62003

Inzane, I am in the exact same boat as you. I am at day 20 today. I seeded at 8 lbs. it looks great from a distance but up close it's thin. A few area look better than others. The good areas are 4 inches. I am wondering if I should cut it this week and spread more seed at half the rate. Being that it's a bunch grass I am scared ti over do it.